Svetlana Matskevich: The problem is to form the national elites, not the students’ number decrease

Recently, Minister of Education Sergei Maskevich announced that following the entrance campaign of 2012 in Belarus can result a shortage of first-year students having government-financed education. The Minister did not see here any particular cause for...

Recently, Minister of Education Sergei Maskevich announced that following the entrance campaign of 2012 in Belarus can result a shortage of first-year students having government-financed education. The Minister did not see here any particular cause for concern for universities.

However, our education system is not ready to reducing the number of students. This opinion was expressed to "EuroBelarus" information service by an expert of the Humanitarian Techniques Agency, having PHD in pedagogical sciences, Svetlana Matskevich.

Belarus is slowly but surely falls into the demographic bust, and the shortage of first-year students is a fact to be considered. The question is when and how the higher education system should be reorganized in this regard.

Till this time, The Belarusian education system was guided by the fact that the number of students will be increasing all the time, the amount of educational services will be growing, as well, and thus universities will earn more money. In fact, the education system has reached a level of self-financing through the receipt of funds paid for educational services. Now the decline in the number of students will lead to the fact that the flow of money into education field will reduce.

- Hence, the system itself should be rearranged. The competition in the market of educational services should develop, should be offered new professions to choose from, marketing activities should be unfold, etc. But how all this will take place under the current management system in education field, I have no clear idea yet, says Svetlana Matskevich. I think the state will probably apply all his powers to win in the competition with private universities as for the students were educated primarily in the public education system.

Another issue relates to the labor market. How to reduce the number of students will affect the labor market?

Sergei Maskevich noted that "certain point problems" related to unfilled places in the budget form of education, was also observed in the previous year, but this had been expected. "I see absolutely no threat, and there is no concern that we might leave any area or industry without the stuff", said Minister of Education.

Svetlana Matskevich does not see either much difference in employment due to the decrease in the number of students, and recommends considering not as much the quantitative aspect, as the qualitative one, ie specialists’ qualification. And even having the trend of reduction in the number of employed in the labor market, this can be compensated by improving educational technologies, says the expert.

- Higher education has now acquired the mass character. This trend of the mass character of education has led to reduction in the higher education quality and to discrediting of the very status of higher education, indicates a problem Svetlana Matskevich. Ways out of this situation can be different. The first option is improving the quality and the status of higher education, but then it should cease to be of mass character and to become elitist. The second option is when the higher education has still mass character, but we will have to form a new, higher level of education system that will lay claim to the elitist status. This means establishing a "post-higher” education level. I think this second way is simpler and is more justified at the moment.

In reducing the number of students the AGT expert does not see any particular problems, because "education system has been of mass character and having a certain level of quality, and so it will remain". Financial, managerial aspects of the higher education system may be rearranged, but not qualitative ones.

- The work should be focused on another question: where and in what activity system we will form the elites? These elites who will claim to be the ruling class in the country, who will determine the future of Belarus, who will set trends in various fields of activity, concludes Svetlana Matskevich. In my opinion, the main concern should not lie in the field of mass education and general trends, but in the field of elitist education, formation of the national elites.